Jerusha Howe’s musical ability was locally renowned, recounted in stories and articles about The Wayside Inn. In the parlor, she played her pianoforte, said to have been the first owned in Sudbury. “In the 18^th century a few cultivated American ladies had learned to play the harpsichord or the Spanish guitar; from 1800 on affluent women in much larger numbers were taking up the pianoforte which came to have great social as well as musical power….The pianoforte in the parlor, the sentimental parlor song, and the cultivated young woman became a virtually inseparable trio in the early 19^th century—a powerful image of refined domesticity” (Larkin, 249-250).

In the early 1790s, there were 27 known English-made pianofortes in Boston homes. American-made pianofortes began to be constructed in Boston around 1795 (Greenfield, 30). It is unknown who taught Jerusha to play, but she could have learned the skill while at school. Miss Rowson’s academy had a music course that students petitioned for in order to become enrolled (Cook, 17). Parents were charged $3 per term to play on the school’s piano (Nylander, 22).

According to piano restorer, Charles W. Wilson, in a 1970 letter to a Mrs. Welch, Jerusha’s pianoforte was made by Boston piano maker Alpheus Babcock. A study of chiseled “V-shaped” symbols on the piano keys suggests that it was built around 1821 and is the fifth instrument made by Babcock.